The City of Cape Town is set to have complete business plans in place by mid-2025 to take over the management of passenger rail services in the metro. This follows the City Council’s adoption of a comprehensive Rail Feasibility Study, which proposes three potential ownership models for Cape Town’s passenger rail service.
The key finding is that the City should be in control of rail to ensure a fully functional and efficient service in line with the City’s constitutional mandate of providing an integrated public transport system. In a speech to the Council, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said devolution would benefit Capetonians and lower-income households in particular, and support local economic growth for decades to come.
Access the full speech here: https://www.capetown.gov.za/Me...
Mayor Hill-Lewis further announced in Council that the City last night received a signed Service Level Plan (SLP) from PRASA following months of negotiations, with the SLP set to lay the foundation for future rail devolution.
‘With Council’s approval of our Rail Feasibility Study today, Cape Town is set to have detailed business plans in place by mid-2025 for the City’s takeover of passenger rail. Taking charge of Metrorail is especially important for lower-income households, who would save an estimated R932m a year if trains were working as they should.
‘We have a vision to massively scale up passenger numbers, new train sets, new routes, and to upgrade stations and surrounding areas with affordable housing over the next two decades.
‘This is why we are glad to announce that PRASA has sent us a signed Service Level Plan to improve Metrorail in the short term, which the City will monitor via a joint committee with PRASA. The SLP lays the foundation for future rail devolution to the benefit of Capetonians and our local economy. This is a big step towards improving the quality and reliability of the service through a legally binding agreement, and I am very pleased that we managed to get this finalised this year still,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
The SLP now allows for regular, accurate progress reporting from PRASA, with the City exercising oversight over Annual Performance Plan commitments to revitalise stations, introduce more train sets, recommission service lines, and improve the number of daily passengers and train trips.
As part of the SLP, the City also commits to providing the municipal services needed to support and enhance passenger rail; encouraging transit-oriented development along rail corridors; and expediting permits within the City’s services and development planning authority roles.
Business plans for three devolution scenarios
The City’s Rail Feasibility Study commenced in July 2022 to investigate the impact and implications of passenger rail services being devolved to the City of Cape Town; ownership models based on international best-practice amongst others, and associated risks.
Business Plans will now be developed for three ownership models following Council approval today:
- The City owns, operates and maintains the rail network, stations and trains; and absorbs PRASA personnel
- The City owns all rail related assets and concessions rail network, and stations and is responsible for all train operations and maintenance. The concessionaire absorbs PRASA personnel
- The City procures a large scale integrated solution through a comprehensive concession
The study identified the above ownership models taking into consideration the City’s policy mandate and Integrated Development Plan. Potential financial implications were evaluated through a cost-benefit analysis to determine the extent to which financial support would be required.
The estimated cost in nominal terms (which allows for inflation) over a 30-year period amounts to R123 billion. As such, a subsidy will be required from the National Government as well as significant private sector investment into passenger rail.
‘The business plans will further investigate the financial, operational and strategic viability of the preferred ownership models. These will be comprehensive and detail the funding strategies, financial modelling, and operational management plans.
‘Once complete, the business plans will give us further clarity on the required capital injections to replace dated assets and expand the rail network. Expansion is critical as we have to plan ahead for a growing population – be it to increase capacity on the lines where the demand is high, such as the route between Strand and Bellville, or to expand the service to areas where there are currently no trains at all, such as the implementation of the Blue Downs line,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee for Urban Mobility, Councillor Rob Quintas.
